HE'S one of the hottest young stars in Hollywood. And now local cinema goers will be able to see Canterbury's Orlando Bloom in The Two Towers, playing Legolas the elf.

Orlando, 25, has several Internet sites dedicated to him. He will not be at the British premier of the blockbuster because he is filming with Johnny Depp in Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean.

He was at the New York premier, however, where The Two Towers was highly acclaimed by critics. In an interview for Arena magazine he spoke of a spectacular action sequence where he slides down a set of stairs on a shield firing arrows. As he reaches the bottom he has to kick off the shield and leap into action.

Orlando, who went to St Edmund's School, Canterbury, and whose mother Sonia Copeland still lives in the city, has had a busy and hectic schedule this year. He has been in Australia working on The Kelly Gang, a film about the Australian outlaw Ned Kelly.

In the film, which is out in June, 2003, he stars as Ned's best friend Joe Byrne to Heath Ledger's Ned.

Next year sees him begin filming Troy. The film, set for a 2004 release, is an adaptation of Homer's Iliad, the epic classical story that charts the battle between Greece and Troy. Orlando will play the role of Paris to Brad Pitt's Achilles.